The head of the construction committee lasted less than a year

Chairman of the Smolny Construction Committee (CC) Andrei Arteev resigned after working in this post for only 9.5 months. The reasons for such a sudden dismissal are said to be the unprecedentedly low execution of the committee’s budget, the lack of mutual understanding with the “construction” vice-governor Marat Oganesyan and persistent attempts to spend government money on laser scanning of the city center. And in general, according to experts, Mr. Arteev failed to manage the construction industry in St. Petersburg.

Most participants in the construction market did not notice Andrey Arteev’s presence in Smolny
Photo: Photo ITAR-TASS

Mikhail Demidenko, a longtime associate of Vice-Governor Marat Oganesyan on projects for the reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theater, the construction of the Mariinsky-2 and other major construction projects of the Ministry of Culture, will be appointed as the new head of the committee today.

Andrei Arteev wrote his resignation letter at the end of last week. As the head of the press service of Smolny, Andrei Kibitov, told Kommersant, the governor of St. Petersburg, Georgy Poltavchenko, signed the paper, and August 16 was Mr. Arteev’s last working day. And about. First Deputy Vladimir Maran automatically became chairman. Andrei Arteev was appointed head of the Constitutional Court at the end of October last year. Thus, he worked in this post for only 9.5 months, while his predecessor Vyacheslav Semenenko lasted 3.5 years, and Roman Filimonov, who headed the committee before Mr. Semenenko, lasted four years. One of the most likely reasons for the resignation is the extremely slow disbursement of budget funds. Last year, the Constitutional Court took last place among the executive authorities of St. Petersburg in terms of this indicator, having fulfilled only 50% of the budget.

True, it was rather Mr. Semenenko’s fault. But in the new year the situation did not change, although the committee’s funding was reduced from 43.4 billion to 27.7 billion rubles. By July 1, the Constitutional Court had fulfilled the budget by only 14%. Meanwhile, back in mid-June, the head of the city threatened that he would talk to the worst managers of budget funds “substantively and specifically” in order to “spoil their mood.” Mr. Arteev was also unable to intensify the construction of the stadium on Krestovsky Island: the construction of the arena, frozen for almost a year, resumed only in July.

At the same time, Andrei Arteev did not spare budget money for the inspection of buildings in the Konyushennaya and Northern Kolomna - New Holland territories, included in the program for the preservation of the historical center. The head of the Constitutional Court insisted that the examination must necessarily include laser scanning, which raised great doubts among specialists. According to the director of the EKOM examination center, the competition for the inspection of Konyushennaya and Northern Kolomna - New Holland was “tailored” for a specific Moscow company. For 2013-2014, the program provides 595 million rubles for surveying these territories, and, according to unofficial information, Mr. Arteev persuaded the governor to increase this amount several times. “For about four months, Kovalev (deputy chairman of the commission of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg for urban affairs. - Kommersant ) and I butted heads to remove laser scanning from the examination competition,” said Alexander Karpov, director of the EKOM examination center. “There was absolutely wild resistance Arteev, despite the direct instructions of Oganesyan and the instructions of the governor." According to Mr. Karpov, as a result, the competition documentation stated that the winner has the right to choose the technology - laser or photo recording.

Another reason for the dismissal of Andrei Arteev is considered to be that he did not work well with his immediate superior, Marat Oganesyan. Mr. Arteev was appointed to his position before Mr. Oganesyan came to Smolny, and he was called a protégé of Vice-Governor Igor Divinsky. According to Kommersant, today Marat Oganesyan will introduce the new head of the committee - his longtime ally Mikhail Demidenko, who worked with the vice-governor in Moscow on the reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theater, then was his deputy in the North-Western Directorate for Construction, Restoration and Reconstruction, from where moved with Mr. Oganesyan to Smolny to the post of adviser to the vice-governor (read more on page 9).

The head of a construction company, on condition of anonymity, said that “Arteev’s resignation characterizes the leapfrog and chaos that is happening in the investment and construction complex of St. Petersburg.” “Unknown people are appointed who appear out of nowhere with very dubious professional qualities, who practically do not hide the fact that the position in St. Petersburg for them is a temporary job and a line on their resume. Arteev was completely invisible in his post. I believe his resignation is a matter of disagreement with Vice-Governor Oganesyan. The whole situation in the market is a consequence of the unprofessional and short-sighted attitude of the governor and the government towards the construction and development community. I believe that other appointees will also be short-lived. This attitude differs from the attitude of the previous city administration like night and day,” convinced entrepreneur.

Anton Arsenyev, Anna Pushkarskaya, Yulia Chayun

The inconspicuous chairman left his post